


Lets Talk About AUs

by Izupie



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (I can't believe that's an actual tag), Dialogue Heavy, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, M/M, Slav character exploration, does Slav even have powers?, sprinkling of klance, this was supposed to be short and I got way too carried away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-13
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-18 10:56:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10615455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Izupie/pseuds/Izupie
Summary: Keith wants to ask Slav some important questions about Shiro, but ends up learning more about himself in the process.----“I don’t - I’m not in love with anyone.” Keith could hear his own heartbeat in his ears, as the weight of what he’d just been told sank in, and from his own lie.He tried desperately to push away the image of blue eyes and a playful smile.“Ohhh, this must be one of the times you haven’t realised it yet! I’m not telling you who it is! Don’t ask me - I can’t tell you!”





	

**Author's Note:**

> This started as an idea of exploring Slav’s alternate-reality-vision-powers (that may or may not be real powers, but I just like to think they are because that would be the cOOLEST THING EVER) that turned into Keith and Slav talking about Shiro and ended with some Klance thrown in for good measure //jazz hands//
> 
> Updated and Edited: 20/08/17

Keith hovered in front of the door to Slav’s new workshop, wrestling with his decision to knock. He hadn’t had much to do with the strange little alien since the battle - he only knew that Allura had given Slav one of the rooms in the castle to use as his personal workshop while he was staying with them. He’d given no indication as to how long that might be however, and had just accepted the gift with about as much gratitude as Keith expected.

(The Princess had smiled while she swung open the door to a large empty room, “We owe you such a debt of gratitude Slav, please feel free to stay in the castle as long as you would like. This room is all yours. We couldn’t have done it without you.”

And Slav replied with complete and total conviction, “Of course you couldn’t have done it without me. Without the gravity generator, every single plan you would make was doomed to a total one-hundred percent rate of failure.”)

Keith groaned internally at the memory and felt even less inclined to knock.

But... He had questions that only Slav could answer. He'd been trying to put them to the back of his mind by keeping busy with all manner of Voltron things; Lion training, inter-planetry relations, cleaning up after the Galra, Bayard training, team building…… But as soon as he slowed down a persistent feeling of cold guilt would seep into his thoughts, twisting into a knot in his chest that only seemed to get bigger the more he pushed it away. He felt it squirming around in his thoughts even now... 

Where was Shiro? Could they have saved him? Would he come back? Should they be doing more to find him? What if he was waiting for them somewhere? How did he just disappear like that? He should have done something. He should have done _something_. There must have been a way he could have prevented this from happening. How could he be standing there on the ship when Shiro could be out there somewhere??

Keith placed a steadying hand onto the door frame, almost hyperventilating as the guilt swept over him all at once, tightening his chest and making it difficult to breathe. He knew these were self-destructive thoughts... He knew and yet he just couldn't stop them. It was ridiculous to think he could have prevented Shiro's disappearance when not one of them had known that he was going to disappear in the first place; just completely gone without a trace, but Keith had always been the sort of person to internalise his guilt and place the blame on himself for being unable to prevent things that he was powerless to stop.

The door opened with a sudden whoosh and Keith jumped backwards in surprise, caught off guard from being so deep into his thoughts. 

“Your hovering outside the door is very distracting.” The little alien in the doorway had wide eyes, and he wrung the top set of his hands, keeping the others pushed into their sleeves. “I can't think properly with you just standing there like that - you could have knocked and disturbed me right in the middle of a thought, and then it could have flown right out of my head and I would never be able to get it back. So I’ve been having to think very unimportant things while I waited for you to knock, but do you know how hard it is for me to think of unimportant things? It's very hard, I'll tell you.” 

Keith recovered from his surprise but was still only barely able to process what Slav was trying to explain, feeling his eyebrows draw together in his regret at ever having come to visit. Slav continued to rant, his little arms waving animatedly as he spoke and Keith just about resisted the urge to turn around and leave. Thinking he could have the conversation he came for started to seem like a distinct impossibility. Finally Slav turned around and scuttled back to a large pile of blueprints and papers scattered across the floor of the spacious room. Various screens and machines lined the walls, and there was a large table in the center that papers were piled onto and had clearly spilled over onto the floor, nearly covering every available space. It looked like he had too many ideas all at once and was working on something new before he was done with the old one. Keith looked down at a small pile of paper near his feet and saw half-finished schematics and notes in a hastily written alien language he couldn't read. He supposed he should take the invitation to enter, but Keith had only set a foot into the room when Slav looked back up, his eyes even wider, and frantically waved all his hands. 

“Ah! No no no! Don’t go that way! You might step on one of the papers and it could rip and that one might be the key to solving everything. Or you might slip on it and hit your head and die!" Slav paused and tilted his head to one side as if considering something. "Huh. There’s... actually a few realities where that happens.” 

Keith stopped mid-step, irritation crawling up his spine, though he wasn't entirely sure whether that was because of his Slav's outburst or because of the casual manner he had regarded his death, and changed his course to move through the right side of the room instead. Slav squeaked with distress before Keith's foot had even touched the floor, even though he was taking great care to avoid stepping on anything. He just about resisted the urge to sigh with frustration, standing in his original place, still at the doorway. This could potentially be a long afternoon.

Keith pushed down the retort that wanted to snap out, and instead took a little breath. “How about you tell me which way I can go through the room where nothing bad happens?" He folded his arms. "I need to talk to you, and it can’t wait, so just point me in the right direction.” His finger tapped out a fast rhythm on his arm as he spoke, the only outward indication he was losing his patience.

Slav considered this for a moment, though he still looked slightly flustered, and finally gestured to the left. “Hmm... If you go that way there won’t be many realities where something bad happens. I’d say ninety percent you’re okay. Maybe ninety three percent.” He turned away and placed his hands over his eyes. “I can’t watch!”

Keith took a deep breath and took the opportunity to walk quickly across the center of the room while Slav wasn’t watching. He still tried not to tread on any of the alien's hard work, only slightly concerned that what he was saying could also be true and he could slip on one of the papers and die.... He knew it was fairly childish to go that way just because he was told not to, and to ignore Slav’s strange warnings, especially since nobody was quite sure whether Slav could actually ‘see’ these realities or was just making up what he considered to be the worst possible outcome. He was always ranting about alternate realities and the dire consequences of seemingly insignificant actions, but what if he could perceive these alternate spaces where things happen differently? This was what Keith had come to know.

Finally he tapped Slav on the shoulder and the little alien looked up at him in surprise. “Oh, you made it!”

“Of course I made it,” Keith began in a clipped voice, but took a breath and tried again in a softer tone, “I’m sorry I’m disturbing your work, but there’s something I need to ask you.” 

Slav nodded, eyes closed, and put all of his hands in their sleeves. “You want to know about Shiro.”

“Yes! I -” Keith faltered. “How did you know?”

“Of course you want to know about Shiro, there’s not a single reality where you’re not consumed by guilt and grief over him. You all think I don’t notice these things, but I do….. But you also ask me about him in every single one too, and that’s probably the truer explanation.” Slav opened his eyes and looked at Keith with an expression of genuine sympathy. 

Keith felt himself warm to the odd little alien, his previous irritation fading fast, but he was also very aware of the implications of what Slav had just said. “So you do see them.” He said with an edge of something like disbelief - though he wasn’t sure why he should struggle to believe in someone that could see alternate realities after he was made the pilot of a giant red magical robot lion. “The alternate realities you always talk about,” he continued, “you can actually see them?”

Slav tilted his head to one side, the tail at the end of his long body swishing back and forth as he thought. “Yes and no.” He finally answered.

“Yes and no…?” Keith echoed. He shook his head. “Well it doesn’t matter. I just need to know - does he always disappear? Do we ever save him? Does he ever come back to the castle with us after that battle?”

Slav sighed and rubbed his temples. “All the realities where we make it to that point, in none of them is Shiro in the castle afterwards.” (Keith tried not to dwell on the words ‘where we make it’.) “I think. I’m not entirely sure, it’s not like I just look at a screen in my brain and switch through the realities you know. It’s like flashes, feelings.” He folded his arms.

Keith almost visibly deflated, conflicted at feeling better knowing that he didn’t somehow miss an opportunity to save Shiro, but feeling a sharp stab of pain that he’s still no closer to knowing what happened to him. 

“I mean,” Slav suddenly continued, “if it’s something that happens in every reality then I’m more sure about it - like with Shiro. But that doesn't happen all that often. All I know is if something terrible happens in just a few realities, or even just in one, then this could be the one it happens in. I don’t know which reality these things happen in. Maybe it's this one? Maybe it's a different one?" his voice sped up. "I have to stop anything bad from happening by removing any possible chance from every reality, it’s the only way.” His eyes went wide again, and Keith felt like they’d gone a little off topic.

“So these things you’re sure about,” he began, trying to calm Slav back down, “do you know if Shiro is going to come back some day?”

“Hmm. I don’t know, it might be too far ahead. Or maybe it’s too different in too many realities.” Slav wrung his hands again, though his wild-eyed fervour was fading.

Keith hung his head and let a sad sigh escape his lips. “I didn’t think I’d get all the answers I needed anyway, but thanks for talking with me, Slav.”

“Of course, not a problem. I knew you were coming anyway, it was a dead certainty. Happens in every reality.” 

“Really?" Though Keith could believe it, knowing how tormented he'd been since Shiro's disappearance. "….. What else happens in every reality?” Keith asked hesitantly, unable to keep his curiosity at bay.

Slav brightened up. “You Paladins are always the same. I get captured by the Galra. Shiro comes to save me. Though he has varying degrees of success...... Hmm...” He rubbed his chin.

So Lance, Pidge, Hunk, Shiro and himself were always the new Voltron Paladins? That was a comforting thought, to know that they always ended up as a team, regardless of the circumstances leading up to them all meeting. But he had to wonder if they got there differently sometimes; like maybe he stayed in the Garrison in some realities? Or maybe he gets kicked out in all of them. Maybe Shiro and Pidge’s brother Matt never get captured by the Galra, and Pidge finds another reason to join the Garrison, and then Shiro keeps both of his arms intact. What if Lance didn’t take his place as a pilot, if he never flunked out, and he didn’t form a team with Hunk and Pidge at all, or Hunk let his motion sickness get the better of him and left before Shiro returned to earth?...... Keith felt like he’d stumbled upon the yawning abyss of possibilities that Slav experienced. 

“Hmm, what else... Altea is always lost to the Galra, and the Lions are always split apart, you always fall in love with the same person, and the planet -”

“Wait, wait... wait... I - what? - I fall in love with the same person?” Keith interrupted with an edge of something close to panic. Keith's entire thought process came to a grinding halt.

“Oh yes. Every time, always the same person.” Slav said with a nod. 

“I don’t - I’m not in love with anyone.” Keith could hear his own heartbeat in his ears, as the weight of what he’d just been told sank in, and from his own lie. 

He tried desperately to push away the image of blue eyes and a playful smile.

“Ohhh, this must be one of the times you haven’t realised it yet! I’m not telling you who it is! Don’t ask me - I can’t tell you!” Slav shook his head violently, his arms flapping in distress, and bent down to the papers at his feet. “I have lots of work to do. Thank you, Paladin, good bye!”

Keith took the hasty, flustered dismissal as his cue to leave, still feeling the pounding of each heartbeat in his chest as he made a quick retreat out of the room, before Slav could recover enough to tell him he was going the wrong way across the papers again. He felt like his entire world had been shifted into a position he couldn’t tilt it back from. He was going to be part of a bond so strong that it transcended realities, and was forged under every single circumstance possible. How was he supposed to feel after learning something like that? How was he -

“Keith!” A shout dragged Keith slowly out of his thoughts, and he turned to see someone jogging down the long Castle corridor.

“Lance?” His emotions and thoughts were so heavy that his voice was unsure and almost hesitant.

“Don’t ‘Lance?’ me.” Lance spoke with a mock imitation of Keith’s deeper voice. “You’ve been gone for like, an hour-”

“It’s been twenty minutes, Lance.” 

“- and Hunk said he saw you heading off toward Slav’s, which I didn’t think was going to be true - because why would you want to hang out with Slav? - but you weren’t training or moping in your room so I thought I’d check it out anyway.” 

Keith’s eyebrows drew together and he frowned. “I don’t mope in my room. And I wasn’t hanging out with Slav. I was asking him some questions.”

Lance shrugged, his eyes sparkling with mischief, and a smile tugged at his lips. “Look, nobody’s going to judge you for hanging out with him. You aliens gotta stick together or something, right?” Keith made a sharp offended gasp, which only made Lance’s smile even wider, and his voice full of warmth and barely suppressed laughter. He began to walk back down the corridor as he spoke again. “Anyway, I came to tell you that Hunk is trying something different with the food goo today and that you totally need to see what he comes up with. Can’t make it any worse! Anyway, I’ll see you later!” He threw over his shoulder as he launched into a sprint, finally letting out a snort of laughter.

“I don’t care what he does to that food goo Lance, I’m putting your face into a plate of it!” Keith followed quickly in pursuit, feeling the weight on his chest lighten, and his heavy thoughts lifting away as the sound of Lance’s laughter filled his ears and soothed his soul.

Blue eyes. Playful smile.


End file.
